Reduced violence has paved the way for a U.S. pullback. But the battles for power--and for the country's future--are still being fought

A Sunni militia member surveys the landscape outside Fallujah. The U.S.'s embrace of Sunni tribes has helped chase out al-Qaeda, but Iraq's sectarian tensions still simmer.

A Tale Of Two Wars

Whoever wins on Nov. 4 will, inevitably, be a wartime President. In the streets of Iraq and in foxholes in Afghanistan, U.S. troops continue to fight a two-front engagement on perilous terrain, against a constantly shifting array of adversaries. John McCain supported the war in Iraq and was a leading advocate of the surge there; Barack Obama opposed the intervention and calls for pulling out roughly half of all U.S. troops by the middle of 2010. But whether that happens will depend largely on the performance of the Iraqi government. And the possibilities for a reduction...